The Final Impact
March 6, 2014
By: Josh Boutwell of Wrestleview.com
As we head down the final stretch towards Lockdown things continued to progress on Impact with most of the featured bouts. They finally announced the fourth man for Team MVP which was as expected Jeff Hardy. I understand they were playing into the storyline with him but they announced he was going to be at Lockdown weeks ago so I don’t know what the big deal of waiting so long really was honestly.
The Elimination Match was worked really well before the “non-finish” and I think that was the first time I’ve ever seen a match start and then pretty much be put on hold for an hour and re-started later in the show. It made it feel important like a must for them to continue the match and my God who knew Davey Richards could actually sell?! He sold that arm like a champ and he and Roode told one hell of a story in that match, and Davey came out looking so good with the way he fought back. As a side note I definitely prefer the way TNA decides the man advantage in Lethal Lockdown matches with matches between team members rather than a simple coin toss like WCW used to do with Wargames.
Samuel Shaw continues to be creepy as hell and if this character ultimately fails it will not be from a lack of trying on TNA or Shaw’s part. TNA is devoting a lot of TV time to the character and Shaw is obviously trying very hard to get this thing over. He is doing really well in my opinion but we are going to have to see how his first big match goes at Lockdown.
I had forgotten just how good James Storm is as a heel until tonight, he was excellent and saved Gunner who was struggling BADLY in that promo.
The Knockouts Match was a lot better than last week but was still a bit of a clusterf*ck. Madison and Gail ratcheted up their intensity heading into the Cage Match at least. Sabin overdid it a bit with his acting but it was actually kind of humorous.
Kenny King’s vignette was nice and it looks like they are going to give him a little bit of change in direction with his character when he returns.
If you didn’t see it on my Impact recap or check it on TNA’s website they have officially shuffled the Lockdown card a bit. Originally the debuting Tigre Uno was going to team with the legendary Great Muta and new X-Division Champion Senada against Bad Influence & Chris Sabin, but now they have changed that up to Tigre Uno vs. Manik. Muta and Senada will now team up with fellow Japanese star Yasafumi Nakanoue who is about 26 years old. I think this will be his American debut. It’s a bit disappointing as I was looking forward to that match but Manik vs. Tigre Uno was one of the matches that I was anticipating when Extreme Tiger signed with TNA so that should be an extremely exciting, athletic match. TJ Perkins is very well versed in Lucha Libre and he speaks Spanish which should make for easier communication between the two.
Angle and EC3 was a weird promo as EC3’s enthusiasm came off a bit awkward, but his attack on Angle was great and should lead to the story they will tell in the cage. I wouldn’t anticipate any Moonsaults off the cage this year though.
The final face to face with Joe and Magnus was superb and the best mic work they’ve done this far with each other. A reader last week pointed out the dynamic between Joe/Magnus with Magnus being a “refined gentleman” fresh dressed and how a champion is supposed to perceived while Joe is “animalistic” with rage and wearing street clothes and beating the hell out of people like a beast. That was on clear display again this week. Magnus’ promo was great and pointing out their past history, all of it, was a nice touch and you could actually see Joe visibly shaking as he was getting more and more angry as Magnus talked about Joe’s rage. Him pointing out that Joe’s rage had been his downfall in his career was nice as was Joe pointing out that what Magnus was saying was true but this wasn’t a typical wrestling match and his rage will be perfect for a match where you must tap out or be knocked out. It was just a really good job by two great talents that I’m looking forward to seeing this Sunday.
– Segment/Promo of the Night: Joe/Magnus
– Match of the Night: Elimination Match/Davey vs. Roode (***)
– Overall Grade: B+
Until next week… PEACE!
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